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Every political season I think I've heard just about everything--every bit of contrived nonsense, smarmy half-truths and blatant lies that anyone could come up with. And then along comes someone like Republican Senate Nominee Todd Akin with a statement that isn't only stunning in its ignorance, but sinks the level of debate so far into the mud that it's frankly beyond belief.

In a recent interview (shown in full here), Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill, justified his opposition to abortion rights even in case of rape with a claim that victims of “legitimate rape” have unnamed biological defenses that prevent pregnancy.

Quoting Akin:

“First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare...If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

“Let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work, or something, I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”

Now, forget for a moment your position on abortion, and just consider Akin's groundless assertion--accented by an astoundingly poor choice of words--that "legitimate rape" doesn't lead to pregnancy. As pointed out by the website TalkingPointsMemo.com, Akin doesn't have much of an argument. A 1996 study by the American Journal of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found “rape-related pregnancy occurs with significant frequency” and is “a cause of many unwanted pregnancies” — an estimated “32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year.”

According to the Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network (RAINN), "In 2004-2005, 64,080 women were raped.According to medical reports, the incidence of pregnancy for one-time unprotected sexual intercourse is 5%. By applying the pregnancy rate to 64,080 women, RAINN estimates that there were 3,204 pregnancies as a result of rape during that period." So even with a low-end estimate, that's well over 3000 pregnancies from rape in a two-year period -- certainly enough to disprove Akin's (hopefully) career-ending assertion.

Check out the full interview here and judge Akin's comments for yourself.